Ringo flashes forward and looks back to the past on his new cd "Y Not" out now from Hip-O Records / UMe.

The flash forward is Ringo’s first job as producer on an album (his last five studio CDs were produced by former Roundheads bandmate Mark Hudson, who also had a one song production credit on Ringo’s last album, “Liverpool 8”.

The Blast from the Past is most notably the appearance of Beatle Paul on two of the tracks. Macca plays bass on the Lennon influenced, “Peace Dream” and then famously sings background on the first single, “Walk With You”.

“Paul was in L.A. to do the Grammys, and I said come over I’ve got this song, mainly to play on ‘Peace Dream” cause it’s got this line about John Lennon and I though it would be nice if we were there, still carrying on about Peace and Love”, said Ringo at his New York press launch on January 12t. “And he said ‘sure’, and I was playing him the tracks, and he heard “Walk With You”, and he said ‘gimme some cans’, and so he just added the harmony”.

The Starr / Macca duet is burning up youtube. Check out the Beatle Brunch special video montage of the song in the downloads section of The Beatle Brunch Club, or you can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OalD_0Hl6jk.

On “Peace Dream”, Ringo continues the theme of Peace that John & Yoko started in 1969, by recalling a dream he’d had recently. Ringo refers to John’s struggle for peace in lyrics like “can you imagine” and “just like John Lennon said in Amsterdam from his bed”.

On a track that flashes back to his teenage years starting out in music, “The Other Side of Liverpool” is a darker, less optimistic reflection, saying, “only way out of there, drums, guitar and amp”. Ringo send props out to his old Hurricanes bandmates Dave, Brian Briscoe and Rory. This is a much darker Liverpool than is painted in his last hometown reflection, “Liverpool 8”.

Adding female backing vocals on the CD, is Cindy Gomez, who sings on “The Other Side of Liverpool”, but its’ the track, “Who’s Your Daddy” that’’s really a duet between Ringo and soulful british singer Joss Stone, who also co wrote the song. Also appearing on the CD are many of Ringo’s former and current All Starrs including Gary Wright, Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter, Richard Marx, and former Roundheads, Gary Burr and Steve Dudas, plus Grammy Award Winner Ben Harper. Ringo pal and producer of his last CD, Dave Stewart, shares a writing credit and plays guitar on two songs, “The Other Side of Liverpool” and “Time”.

All in all, this is a refreshing pop-sounding Ringo CD. Listen to win your copy on Beatle Brunch in our Mind Games contest.